To Those Readers And Others Who Asked And Now As An Open Letter:
Regarding inquiries made about the Watchtower Society over Jehovah's Witnesses sending many of its workers packing back to kingdom hall congregations, the original, primary written source about the workman's comp aspect was the New York Daily News of January 6, 2006; the article in full appearing below.
Also, if you want more information than this from the New York Daily News you can use the name of the judge to locate the original courtcase to read the record for it at the courthouse or phone the attorneys who represented the different sides for any additional information. Law reviews and state-published summations of legal verdicts are other sources that can help you.
The link and several strings discussing this appeared on jehovahs-witness.com. Further, at the February 2006 meetup in
You may wish to correspond further with Randy Watter at [email protected] , and other posters at jehovahs-witness.com. He or others such as Bill Bowen at silentlambs.org may have learned more. When asked by the media, the Watchtower Society's spokespeople have, I am told, refused to say anything at all. My elder source said he himself was emailed the information from one of the active, underground Bethelite workers at Brooklyn who was present in the dining area when the announcement was made. The Watchtower Society's doing this is in the immediate wake of the workman's comp verdict and probably is also affected by their having brought in new printing equipment as well as going more into outsourcing.
The WTS would seem to think the dismissal of many of its workers is a solution to its monetary problems. I am told that they still have vast sums of liquid cash donations but it also appears that despite this they can foresee that the membership trends, especially in the wealthier western nations, is downward. They are wealthy too from prime real estate they can sell in . Further, many members are "Babyboomers" born about 1947-1950 who have now reached 50 to 60 years of age, are experiencing health problems and are beginning to die,... and leave assets willed to the Watchtower Society. This last factor and their dismissal of workers is, at a guess, the type of solutions they are hinging their hopes on. What they don’t know, and must worry them too, is how many members in afflluent nations are exasperated with them and will become so to the point of not donating time, money and energy preaching.
They are also working to counter some of the negative publicity coming due to their now fully exposed policy of sending so-called repentant child molester members among those preaching door-to-door. For example there is a movie that is being developed to cast them in the light of heroic defenders of freedom rather than a cult. It has been claimed that there was no official original tie between the producer and the Watchtower Society but I have read (jehovahs-witness.com) that the WTS is enthusiastically supportive of this. Too, it is not hard to picture some of them using continuing strong ties with persons in the U.N., going back to when they were an official NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) affiliate (also since exposed on the internet) to promote international U.N. efforts to clamp down on the internet.
Meanwhile WTS heads like Ted Jaracz are doubtlessly fearful that their having lost the workman's comp case, the loss on non-payment of taxes in France, the continuing child molestation scandal publicised earthwide (NBC, CBS, CNN etc), the wrongful death lawsuit in Canada by Lawrence Hughes, etc. are still nipping at their heels and may cost them even more loss of positive public relations and money, and far worse, that such issues will lead to some attorneys and legislators eventually coalescing to lobby for their being wholly removed from their non-taxed status as a non-profit organization in the United States and or other nations.
That's all the information and views that I can share with you, but if I can do more for you, my own phone number is 913 492-1564, and ask for Joe. My own picture and story appear in the PHOTOS and FILES sections at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ChristianWitnesses/
| "Church may be forced to pay millions | |
| BY JESS WISLOSKI and ADAM LISBERG DAILY NEWS WRITERS http://www.nydailynews.com January 6, 2006 | |